Gene Axelrod pulls a fast one at his high school reunion

Former Honolulu Club owner Gene Axelrod pulled a good one on his West Lafayette High School classmates at their recent reunion in Indiana. He sent his dad, Dr. Bernard Axelrod, to the party, wearing his name tag. The good doctor is 92, while Gene turns 68 Monday. Gene was laughing behind a pillar as his classmates did a double take when they saw the senior Axelrod. Longevity runs in the Axelrod family. Gene's mom, Sara, also is 92. Gene is the owner of the Beverly Hills Country Club. He divides his time between Hawaii and California ...

Mid-Pacific Country Club will have veteran entertainers Jimmy Borges and the Betty Loo Taylor Quartet performing for its Valentine's Day dinner, dance and show next Wednesday. Shari Lynn will be singing with Jimmy. The buffet dinner event is $69. The club management says friends of Jimmy are welcome, even though they are not club members. Call 262-8161 for reservations ... Visiting Tuskegee Airmen will attend the sold out pre-Valentine's Day dinner dance at the Elk's Club tonight with Augie Rey's Little Big Band, Augie said. Augie and the band play Fridays, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., at Tower Grill at Aloha Tower ...

Slack Key Star, a martini created by Chuck's Steak House bartender Bob Melton at the Outrigger Waikiki, won the Outrigger's "On the Beach" signature drink contest ...

COURTESY PHOTO
Gene and Dr. Bernard Axelrod.

Goldstein's sunscreens get spot in Smithsonian

Dr. Norm Goldstein, the nation's first dermatology specialist to receive a laureate from the American College of Physicians, has received another unprecedented honor. The Smithsonian Institution is putting on permanent display his 35-year collection of sunscreen preparations along with his 1972 American Academy of Dermatology Silver Award for Original Research on the Prevention of Skin Cancer with the use of a PABA in Alcohol Sunscreen. Norm named the product PreSun and it is still on the market ...

I certainly fumbled the ball in Wednesday's column, calling the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts the Baltimore Colts, the Colts' former home. I was blitzed by a couple of e-mails about the goof before 7 a.m. Wednesday and sacked by more later. It was painful ...

Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin in the streets of downtown Honolulu during World War II, writes of people, places and things in our Hawaii. E-mail him at bwood@starbulletin.com